Over 140 people from across the Charter of Trust’s membership, the EU institutions, and the broader ecosystem of Brussels-based stakeholders tuned in to hear Natalia Oropeza, Chief Cybersecurity Officer and Chief Diversity Officer from Siemens, preview the direction of the Charter in 2021. She was followed by Lorena Boix Alonso, Director for Digital Society, Trust & Cybersecurity at the European Commission, who discussed the Commission’s plans for cybersecurity, especially in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and the SolarWinds hack.

Our first panel looked at the role of certification in raising resilience. Andreas Mitrakas from ENISA emphasised the role of trust in cybersecurity and outlined the approach taken by ENISA towards certification schemes. Representatives from Charter of Trust Partners NXP Semiconductors and SGS gave their perspectives, touching on the need for certification schemes to be implemented across the risk spectrum and emphasising the importance of edge computing.

On the second panel, Charter of Trust Partners Atos and IBM, as well as Prof Stefan Mangard from TU Graz, addressed the human element of cybersecurity. They touched on the use of AI to support human efforts to combat cybercrime, collaboration between industry and academia, and the role of collaboration hubs in sharing threat intelligence and improving collaboration overall. A key takeaway was the importance of the cultural context when it comes to working with technology.

The third panel looked at what lessons could be drawn for supply chains from the SolarWinds attack. Siemens, TÜV SÜD and AES, all Charter of Trust Partners, emphasised that no organisation had zero risk of being attacked. They discussed the implications of different levels of risk, the need for metrics and data related to cyberattacks, and outlined some of the ways that the Charter of Trust has sought to help provide an approach for medium- and low-risk targets.

The Charter of Trust will be looking at all these topics in more depth over the coming months. To keep informed, sign up to our newsletter and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.